Kate Gosselin is defending her parenting choices in the wake of her estranged son Collin Gosselin’s tell-all memoir.
After recently sharing a “life update” via TikTok, Kate, 51, received a flurry of supportive messages about how she raised her “precious children.”
“I’m so frustrated that my FYP [‘For You’ page] is being flooded with such terrible lies,” one social media user replied. “It should be illegal to defame someone that way, but I just wanted to say you are doing a great job keeping your head up through all of this! We love you!”
Kate “liked” the comment, also thanking the individual directly.
“I know rational logical [people] or anyone who has dealt with mental illness understands what’s going on here,” the Kate Plus 8 alum wrote, later adding, “I had nothing to do with it, except for consent because it was medically necessary.”
Kate also “liked” a message that claimed, “People don’t admit anyone to psychiatric hospitals. Doctors do that.”
Kate shares twins Mady and Cara, 26, and sextuplets Collin, Joel, Aaden, Hannah, Alexis and Leah, 22, with ex-husband Jon Gosselin. Kate and Jon, 49, divorced in 2009 after a decade of marriage, and the nurse was granted primary custody of all eight children. Collin later claimed that he had been institutionalized by Kate after alleged behavioral issues. (Jon eventually sought custody of Collin amid his son’s estrangement from Kate. Jon also was granted custody of daughter Hannah, who remained in contact with her mom.)
Collin shared his alleged experience in his newly released book, In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood.
“The hardest part wasn’t having to go through that on a daily basis — it was that I never had a childhood with my siblings,” Collin exclusively revealed in his Us digital cover story, addressing Kate’s alleged abuse. “[I think less about] the words that were being spat into my face and her hands on me than about my siblings. They were the only people I felt understood me, but I had no life with them.”
Kate has not publicly addressed Collin’s book, though has long denied any accusations of wrongdoing. Collin, for his part, remains hopeful that his mom will read his memoir.
“I don’t think [she will], but I can be hopeful that she does and maybe it awakens something in her,” he told Us, predicting how Kate would react to certain accusations. “Anything that says she wasn’t the best mother in the world. For so long, she was praised like a god. How do you go from that one day to [watching] the facade you built crumble?”
In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood is out now.
